


An Old Dog (and a Time Travel Trick)

by Drag0nst0rm



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Character Interpretation, Canonical Character Death, Friendship, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 10:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17020704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drag0nst0rm/pseuds/Drag0nst0rm
Summary: Huan will do whatever it takes to protect Celegorm.No matter how many times it takes to get it right.





	An Old Dog (and a Time Travel Trick)

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Silmarillion.

Technically, all of the Valar and Maiar with their vast powers can sing the song backwards and slip into the past, but it’s strongly frowned upon by the faithful ones, and those like Sauron can’t once they’ve fallen because to use it would mean admitting there was something they could have done better, and they won’t do that.

But Huan occupies the perfect border between rebellion and faithfulness. He doesn't care about the rules, but he's not so stuck in his ways that he can't admit to mistakes.

He can’t travel back before the Doom of Mandos. He’s tried. But the Doom is stuck to him, making it impossible to go to a time when he wasn’t doomed, so he can’t save Finwe and the Silmarils. 

In one lifetime, he uses one of his three opportunities to speak to rage to Celegorm about that. The urge to protect is part of Huan’s very being, and being denied the chance to do that burns him, especially when he sees Celegorm continue to suffer for it.

The first time through, no one ever retrieves a Silmaril - although admittedly, they don’t have much of a chance. Celegorm dies in the first battle in Beleriand, and Huan refuses to accept that. He’s already been condemned by the Valar; why not break one more rule?

So he goes back and tries again. 

The problem is, Huan’s power has been greatly limited by the Doom. He can go back as many times as it takes, but once he’s living it all through again, there’s only so much he can do. 

He can advise Celegorm thrice and defend him in every battle, but it is never enough. Beleriand always falls, inch by inch, and Celegorm always dies.

What they need, Huan knows from the beginning, is to get the Silmarils. The Silmarils will make the elves stronger since they possess the light of the Trees. The Silmarils will fulfill the Oath. The Silmarils are the prey Celegorm cannot stop chasing, and maybe once he has them he will be happy again.

Huan tries everything he can think of to get them, but nothing ever works.

He more or less ignores Luthien for the first several lifetimes that she’s relevant.

Then, once he’s gotten desperate, he looks at her and sees possibility.

If one Maia cannot get a Silmaril, maybe one and a half can.

And once they’ve gotten it away from Morgoth, he can bring it back to Celegorm.

He wishes he could explain his plan, but he has learned to hoard his words, and Celegorm will understand everything when he returns victorious.

The first attempt was not quite as successful as he’d hoped, but she’s still alive and so is her mortal, so he’s sure she’ll try again.

He doesn’t realize how it all must look to Celegorm until he’s facing off with the star crossed couple and looking between them and Huan with desperate loss in his eyes.

 _I haven’t left you,_ Huan wants to tell him, _I’ll never leave you._ His loyalty is with Celegorm, always, but right now that means he needs Luthien and Beren alive, so he protects them in the fight and spends the next week arguing with himself over whether or not to turn back time and do it over.

But they’re so close that he doesn’t dare.

Everything will be alright when he brings back the Silmaril, he convinces himself.

Except Beren loses the Silmaril.

Huan is pretty sure at this point that this timeline is a loss, but he follows them anyway on the dim chance that something can still be learned from it. Besides, Carchoroth has the Silmaril now. Perhaps Huan can win it from him.

So he fights the greatest wolf to ever live.

Later, poets will give him a farewell speech, bidding Beren and Luthien farewell. This is just the usual glorification. Huan has no time for final speeches.

Or for rewinding time, or for anything at all.

A disgraced Maia in the Halls of Mandos is not allowed to turn back time, and no one else seems at all inclined to. A Silmaril is in the hands of the elves once again, and no one else seems at all concerned that it’s the _wrong elves._

For a moment, Huan feels viciously vindicated when trouble comes of it.

Then he watches in Vaire’s weavings as Celegorm dies, and it hurts just as much as it had every time before.

In the Halls of Mandos, he can speak as he likes, so he tells Vaire, “I want to see him.”

“He is in isolation,” she says calmly. “And you were never the influence on him that we had hoped.”

Huan had served under Orome, the Vala that had continued to roam free into Middle Earth to fight long after his fellow Valar sought rest. Huan isn’t quite sure why any of the Valar’d had any hope at all in expecting him to influence Celegorm to stay in Valinor where he'd felt so trapped.

So Huan roams the Halls and occasionally comes across poets under the impression that he was loyal to Luthien and who are offended on his behalf that he is still stuck here.

Huan will take all the outrage in his favor that he can get, but he wants to slink into a corner when it occurs to him that Celegorm probably thinks the same.

Nienna finds him there and pets him for a long while. He allows it.

She then has a long conversation with Namo that involves much weeping on her part, and at last Huan is allowed to see Celegorm once again.

He pokes his nose into the grey room and looks at the wounded spirit curled up in the corner. He whines.

Celegorm looks up and a bit of color comes back to his lifeless face. “Huan?” he croaks.

Huan bounds over to him. Celegorm clutches his fur and weeps into his side.

Huan makes sure he’s between his friend and the door. He has failed in protecting him so many times.

He will not fail again.


End file.
